Posted on 11/26/2015 5:42:41 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
“Trump talks of preserving third rail Social Security and Medicare. Middle class entitlements are a fact of life.”
These are NOT entitlements! I’ve had sizable amounts of money robbed from every paycheck for the nearly 50 years that I’ve been working and which are supposedly going to have returned to me, assuming I don’t kneel over dead tomorrow, in which case I won’t receive a penny.
I would have much preferred to put all of this money in a private retirement account. I would be a multi-millionaire today if I had been allowed to do that. Instead, these programs I paid into have been repeatedly robbed to pay for SSI, Medicaid, benefits for illegal aliens, and tons of other people who have never worked in their lives.
Plus, I would have these private assets to pass on to my family in the event of an untimely death, unlike SS benefits.
You have put your finger on a real truth. This is why I like him so much.
He knows that we need to prosper in order to keep the whole show going. If the government siphons off our resources to pander to foreigners and welfare drones we will end up like all the other third world hell holes.
I had/have no control over their miss-use of MY money.
Morally, you are correct. Unfortunately, legally you are not. Congress could cut your social security check tomorrow 100% and there is nothing you could do about it, other than to vote for different politicians.
I agree. Henry Ford knew more than a lot of these greedy cheap labor express types know - the population needs to be able to afford your products.
By the time these clowns catch on Trump will be at 75% in the polls.
You don't even have to die early to pass private assets to your heirs. Invested properly, the amount I have paid into SS could pay me back much more than the benefit I receive with a very safe, less than 4% withdrawal rate.
From an economic standpoint these are entitlements. But, from an ethical standpoint, they are earned entitlements as opposed to things like welfare, which is an unearned entitlement.
I agree about your comments on Social Security. It should be a 401k type account that you can pass down. We don’t have to take a generation to phase it in either. The government can just buy-out the Social Security accounts with a deposit to your new account. It might not be a dollar for dollar buy out, but at least you’ll have more confidence it’ll be there when you retire.
The only retirement accounts the government should manage is for government employees. Even so, the accounts should have a dollar value that you can pass down.
After fixing retirement accounts, they should look at government pensions. Just pay the money to a retirement account instead of hiding the cost by pushing it out to later years.
“earned entitlements”
So, if I voluntarily deposit money in a bank account and then start withdrawing it, is that an “earned entitlement”?
If every paycheck of mine for nearly 50 years is robbed at gunpoint by the government and I receive SS “credits” in my account and am promised to receive SOME of that money back is that “earned”; why isn’t it that I am simply being returned SOME of the money stolen from me?
Why is withdrawing a voluntary deposit not an “earned entitlement” but withdrawing SOME of the money stolen from me by the government at gunpoint an “earned entitlement”?
Congress could cut your social security check tomorrow 100%Uh, huh and some dimwits would cheer it on thinking they (you?) would somehow be better off.
New York would be in play if Trump gets the nomination.
No that is a withdrawal of your own money.
Why is withdrawing a voluntary deposit not an “earned entitlement†but withdrawing SOME of the money stolen from me by the government at gunpoint an “earned entitlement�
Because the money the government took from you was really a tax and not a deposit of money into a financial institution.
SS is all tied up in emotions, and it was sold as a savings vehicle, even though it is really a tax. As the law now stands, you earned that entitlement by paying the tax while you worked.
* * * * *
If one person accosts you on the street and takes your money under threat of violence, that is robbery.
If millions of people collude together and take your money under threat of violence, that is taxation...
The problem is that they can't just make "a deposit to your new account". The money is long gone -- buying votes from low-information voters. Spent on welfare, HUD subsidies and the like.
This is not a newly-discovered problem, I have been reading articles on it since the early 1980s. Liberals lied and kept trying to discredit the people who were pointing out the problem, and many believed them. There is not a quick and easy fix, and for people close to retirement there will be pain. In the late 80s I realized that the warnings were accurate and started saving for my own retirement. With 25 to 30 years of work it is possible to provide for your own future.
Sure, it is hard, but by living below your means and saving, it can be done.
But, the first step in providing for your own future is to accept what the Supremes said about Social Security. It is a tax, and nothing but a tax. The payout can be changed or eliminated at any moment at the whim of Congress. It is not a savings account and no individual has any claim on any money.
Congress is free to squander the SS tax on anything they want, just like all the other taxes Americans pay. And when Bush tried to change that, the Dems hooted him down.
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